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For Release: September 24, 2003

Back to School 2003Healthy Choices, Healthy Kids Campaign is Core of DOEs
Commitment
to Boost Health and Physical Education Programs in Schools

This year the Department of Education is escalating its commitment to
a health and fitness campaign for New Jerseys schoolchildren. An
interdepartmental campaign, entitled Healthy Choices, Healthy Kids,
was kicked off last spring at the Healthy Kids Summit. Healthy Choices,
Healthy Kids combines several different initiatives and programs into
one collaborative project.

"The Department of Education, along with the other participating
departments, is very excited about the new school year, as we prepare
to launch new projects and programs to revamp the state of health and
physical education in the New Jersey school community," said Commissioner
of Education William L. Librera.

"This year we will have revised core curriculum content standards
in comprehensive health and physical education, and will provide multi-media
tools to aid local educators, pilot programs of health education teacher
training and collect information on student body mass index," Commissioner
Librera said. "All of these activities predict that 2003-2004 will
see more attention focused on health and physical education in NJs
schools."

The DOEs initiative had its beginnings well before the May summit.
The campaign has grown out of the national concern about the rising obesity
problem among youth, due in part to the effects of the largely sedentary
free-time activities pursued by the nations young people.

As the new school year unfolds, school administrators will be receiving
materials several years in the making that will help them to revise their
health and physical education programs. The DOE is also moving forward
in its work on teaching tools and new curriculum standards for health
educators.

"Schools have enormous potential for helping students develop the
knowledge and skills they need to be healthy and to achieve academically,"
said Assistant Commissioner of Education Richard Ten Eyck. "We have
the power to change our own behavior and in the bargain, improve our own
health and fitness, as well as our children and grandchildren."

The campaign has been funded by a $96,000 grant provided to the NJDOE
in 2001 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to support
a youth media campaign to encourage increased physical activity and healthier
eating choices. The money has been used to develop youth media messages
that are being distributed in various forms to school districts. "We
were able to do more with the money than anticipated," said Linda
Morse, acting manager of curriculum and instruction for the DOEs
Office of Academic and Professional Standards.

Booklets and interactive CD-Roms are being sent to all K-8 principals
in September, with the recommendation that the material be shared with
leading physical education staff in each school, as well as community
parents and organizations. The CD-Roms contain downloadable clips
from the Fitness for Life video, while the booklets document consensus
reached by the focus groups at the Be Fit! Forums.

The information and conclusions published in the media materials were
researched during the 2001-2002 school year, through the Be Fit! Forums,
from November to April. These forums incorporated over 100 school districts
and were held at four sites around the state. Each participating school
sent out a team of four, consisting of one male and one female student,
as well as a teacher or school official, and a parent or community coach.

Focus groups were held to discuss issues within the school environment
that affect childrens physical well-being, from physical education
program quality to school lunches. Students from the five state colleges
that prepare healthy and physical education teachers ran the focus groups.
Within the groups, participants conferred about the quality of health
and physical education in their particular schools across the state.

Fitness for Life is a nine-minute video developed by the DOE in
collaboration with the New Jersey Council on Physical Fitness and Sports
and the New Jersey Network. The video displays dynamic physical education
classes in four different school communities: Paterson, Ridgewood, Mount
Laurel and West Deptford. It raises the questions of highest concern that
instigated the campaign, as well as showcasing innovative examples of
high-quality physical education.

Among these issues are the alarming nationwide statistics reported in
the video: 4 million kids have above normal blood pressure; 5-10 million
kids are obese; 27 million kids have high cholesterol. Every day 3,000
kids under 18 become daily smokers.

Contrasted with these statistics are clips from progressive physical
education classes, where students are generally having a great time while
exercising. "I want to be a dancer," explains one wiggling,
energetic young girl.

"There is a profound body of empirical literature that says healthy,
active children have the potential for increased school success,"
insists JoAnne Owens-Nauslar, director of Professional Development for
the American School Health Association and an expert quoted in the video.

Last spring, the Healthy Kids Summit fused the various efforts
into one public campaign involving the Governors Office, the Department
of Education, and the departments of Agriculture and Health and Senior
Services.

"The effects of obesity and poor health on learning are of extreme
concern to educators," said Richard Ten Eyck, who cited a well-documented
connection between physical well-being and improved academic performance.

The Department is planning to implement several other programs this year,
including the new Core Curriculum Content Standards for Health and Physical
Education, as well as a pair of new pilot programs related to student
fitness.

"We anticipate approval of the new Core Curriculum Content Standards
by November," said Linda Morse. "They are pending adoption by
the State Board of Education."

The standards will create more effective and updated ways for health
and physical education to be taught and studied in New Jersey schools.
The department has an important role in working with districts as they
adapt to the new standards.

The DOE is also collaborating with the Department of Health and Senior
Services in an introductory pilot program that will collect information
on the height and weight of children to calculate body mass. A representative
group of 30-35 schools will participate in the program, with school nurses
taking anonymous data from sixth-grade classes.

"We plan to see how cumbersome the data collection process is, as
well as whether there are discrepancies in the process," explained
Morse. "We will then evaluate how useful the data are to us in targeting
problem areas."

The DOE recently joined the Health Education Assessment Program of the
State Collaborative on Assessment and Student Standards (SCASS-HEAP),
to which approximately two dozen other states belong. The program is also
a partnership with the Department of Health and Exercise Science at Rowan
University, led by chair Dr. Richard Fopeano.

The program provides training in new assessment strategies and performance
tests to state teachers, in an effort to quickly realize the benefits
of the new assessment methods in improving the health education curriculum.

Through this collaboration, a training program is scheduled for a pilot
group of about 75-100 teachers for the summer of 2004. The teachers will
learn how to use materials to assess students in the area of health education.
As there is currently no statewide test for health education, these centralized
training sessions will allow state officials to better gauge the health
education programs of individual school districts, and thereby improve
them.